Morocco

Morocco dropped by. I wasn't expecting a North African kingdom, but company is always welcome. Especially such charming company - those cinnamon-warm spices, those lush stews and that habit of pressing savory against sweet. Intoxicating. And no longer rare. I keep running into Morocco. The cook shop is stocked with couscoussiers and saffron threads. The chic home poses in Berber rugs, Moorish floor tile and low-slung couches. Out to dinner recently I met bastilla (also known as pastilla, bisteeya or...

MARRAKESH, Morocco (Reuters) - U.S. energy major Chevron needs at least two and a half years to gather seismic data before deciding whether to stay in Morocco, the head of its Moroccan affiliate said on Wednesday. In January, Chevron Morocco Exploration Ltd signed an agreement with Morocco's Office National Des Hydrocarbures Et Des Mines (Onhym) for three deepwater blocks in one of the less explored areas in the region. Vice President and Country Manager at Chevron...

RABAT, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Morocco confirmed on Friday that it had begun a roadshow to promote a dollar bond issue that will help control a budget deficit, as the North African country tries to manage the effects of the euro zone crisis and Arab Spring dissent. "It started yesterday," Nizar Baraka told Reuters during a parliament session to discuss a budget for 2013 that has provoked protests over jobs and inflation in Rabat this week. He declined to give more details about...

RABAT (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday encouraged Morocco to push on with political and economic reforms as the United States looks to expand commercial ties with the only African country to enjoy a U.S. free trade deal. While leaders in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya were toppled by Arab Spring revolts in 2011, Morocco weathered popular unrest by raising social spending, introducing limited constitutional reforms and bringing forward elections. The...

(Reuters) - Dynamo Kiev signed Morocco midfielder Younes Belhanda from French side Montpellier for an undisclosed fee on Sunday, the Ukrainian club said. "Welcome to Kiev, Younes," Dynamo wrote in French on their website (www.fcdynamo.kiev.ua) to greet the player who was presented during a pre-season match against Russian side Zenit St Petersburg along with other new signings Jeremain Lens and Dieumerci Mbokani. The 23-year-old played a key role when Montpellier clinched their...

RABAT (Reuters) - The Moroccan government has denied that an 8,000-year-old rock engraving depicting the Sun as a divinity has been destroyed in the south of the country in an attack residents had blamed on ultra-orthodox Salafi Muslims. Communications Minister Mustafa el-Khalfi took journalists to the site of the pagan engraving in the Toukbal National Park to demonstrate that reports of its destruction were untrue. Ahmed Assid, a prominent activist for the indigenous Amazigh...

RABAT (Reuters) - Morocco has filed a lawsuit in France against activists who are suing the head of its domestic intelligence service over torture allegations, the Interior Ministry said, the latest move in a case that has divided Rabat and its former colonial ruler. The row between Morocco and France erupted in February when French police tried to question the head of Rabat's intelligence service during a visit to Paris over accusations that his agency was involved in...

RABAT, May 28 (Reuters) - Coastal club Moghreb Tetouan won their first Moroccan league title with a 1-0 win over FUS Rabat in the final game of the season on Monday. A 50th-minute goal from Abdelkarim Benhania lifted Tetouan to 61 points, four more than second-placed FUS Rabat. The two unfancied teams had emerged as the only contenders for the title going into the final weekend of the season and by a quirk of fate were drawn to play each other. Hosts FUS Rabat...

RABAT (Reuters) - Two of Morocco's biggest banks, BMCE and BCP are preparing to launch Islamic subsidiaries as the Moroccan parliament discusses a bill regulating Islamic banks and sukuk issues, banking sources said. Parliament's approval will be the last step before fully-fledged Islamic banks can be established in Morocco, whether they are subsidiaries of domestic banks or foreign owned, a measure which could attract more Gulf Arab investment. ...

RABAT (Reuters) - The Moroccan government said it was withdrawing accreditation from an Agence France-Presse (AFP) correspondent who wrote an article casting doubt on the monarchy's neutrality in an election. In a statement carried by state media on Friday, the government accused Omar Brouksy of publishing an "unprofessional news item" about the re-run vote in Tangier. "AFP has conveyed allegations that involved the monarchy in this election, which took place in a...

RABAT (Reuters) - Morocco and Spain made seven arrests and dismantled an Islamist militant cell led by a Spanish citizen that sent fighters to "hotbeds of tension" such as Syria, officials from both countries said on Friday. Hundreds of fighters from Morocco and other Maghreb states like Tunisia and Algeria have joined Islamist-dominated rebel forces in Syria's civil war and North African governments fear they will pose security threats once they return home. ...

RABAT, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Canadian plane and train maker Bombardier on Monday began construction in Morocco of a $200 million plant to make parts for its Learjet 70 and 75 and CRJ aircraft, the state news agency said. EADS, Boeing, Safran and other companies also operate parts plants in Morocco, attracted by favourable government terms for overseas investors. Bombardier has been making parts in Morocco since February at a temporary facility at Mohammed...

All3Media has announced that it will back Heather Schuster 's newly created media company Morocco Junction Entertainment . Schuster serves as CEO of the venture, which will focus on unscripted global formats for broadcast and cable and is based out of All3Media America's Los Angeles offices. Schuster formerly oversaw unscripted development and programming for Ryan Seacrest Prods. and was responsible for series including the recently announced Fox reality...

RABAT, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Morocco has summoned the French ambassador in Rabat to protest against a French lawsuit filed against the head of Morocco's domestic intelligence for alleged complicity in torture, the foreign ministry said on Saturday. It was a rare diplomatic spat between France and Morocco, a former French colony and strong ally of Paris which has faced criticism from rights groups over police abuses, press freedom and judicial independence. ...

PARIS (Reuters) - President Francois Hollande telephoned the king of Morocco to try to calm a rare diplomatic row between France and its former colony about allegations of human rights abuses. In one of two incidents that upset Rabat, French police went to the Moroccan embassy in Paris seeking to question the head of the domestic intelligence over torture allegations, following lawsuits filed against him in France by Moroccan activists. Rabat summoned the French...

RABAT, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Morocco has summoned the French ambassador in Rabat to protest against a French lawsuit filed against the head of Morocco's domestic intelligence for alleged complicity in torture, the foreign ministry said on Saturday. It was a rare diplomatic spat between France and Morocco, a former French colony and strong ally of Paris which has faced criticism from rights groups over police abuses, press freedom and judicial independence. ...